River Walk burlesque club in the works

If everything goes according to one entrepreneur’s plan, a burlesque nightclub called the Blackstone Lounge will open on the River Walk in spring 2010. A location has been secured. And investors are even on board, but the owner said they’re still a good chunk of change away from making the club a reality.

Its proprietor, who wanted to be referred to in this blog as Mr. Blackstone, said the club will provide an upscale and classy topless show “like you’d see in Vegas,” as well as live jazz, comedy acts and magic shows.

“I think it’s an important place to have in San Antonio, a place that’s welcoming of female sensuality on their own terms,” Mr. Blackstone said. “A place that’s gonna be unique and exotic. And they need a place that’s built for them. Not a rock ‘n’ roll club that gets converted into a burlesque club for one night. This is their place.”

Burlesque acts include elaborate stripteases where performers eventually go topless. At the Blackstone Lounge, performers would wear pasties over their you-know-whats.

“In the burlesque business, pasties are more of what you’d imagine pasties to be. Sometimes their colorful or have tassels. They’re more ornate and match their costumes,” Mr. Blackstone said, adding that lap dances would not be allowed because the Blackstone would not be a strip club.

The lounge was originally slated to open this fall but an investor dropped out. Now the project is $250,000 away from launch. Mr. Blackstone wouldn’t reveal the total cost of the project.

He’s also wouldn’t divulge the location. “We kind of want to save that as a surprise,” he said. “It’s more of a marketing thing.” He did say the club would be located on the River Walk, is 3,500 square feet in size and that it will occupy a space that’s currently empty (in other words, the plan isn’t to convert an existing establishment into the Blackstone Lounge.)

DRA president Joan Korte said Mr. Blackstone sought support from the group, but that all the group did was listen.

“He kept telling us it was going to be tastefully done and he wanted our support,” Korte said. “There was no official support from the DRA at all. This is too hot to handle for us. I know we’ve got an awful lot of people more against it than for it.”

Cisneros’ chief of staff Adam Greenup said the office is “very receptive to the (Downtown Residents) Association.”

“(The consensus of the DRA) would certainly be a factor if it were to become anything more than conceptual,” Greenup added.

“Needless to say my antenna went way up, I was concerned,” said Ben Brewer, president of the Downtown Alliance. “I still am. Because I haven’t heard a thing (since). I expressed concern to their face. I just questioned if it was appropriate for downtown. They said it was not intended to serve everyone but that there was definitely a market, that it would be very nondescript on the exterior.”

Charlie Leva, interim director for the Paseo del Rio Association, said he hadn’t heard of plans for the Blackstone Lounge and that he needed more information before he could comment.

Whether the club would require a sexually-oriented business permit would be determined during the application process with the city’s Planning & Development Services department. Mr. Blackstone said that process, as well as the obtaining of a liquor license, won’t begin until the final $250,000 is secured.

Mr. Blackstone said he’s been talking to Michelle L’amour, a Chicago-based burlesque performer and who appeared on “America’s Got Talent” a few years back, about being the entertainment director.

Korte said she doesn’t condone burlesque.

“I’ve gone to those shows myself in Las Vegas, but I don’t know about it being on the River Walk,” Korte said.

For Mr. Blackstone, it’s about reviving the genre in San Antonio.

“The people that are most excited about this project are women,” Mr. Blackstone said. “There are a lot of women that want to see positive portrayals of sexuality and sensuality. We feel like we have enough support.”

So what do you think about burlesque on the River Walk? Are you for it or against it?